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With some help from commenters at Language Log, I concluded that Gov. Sanford probably meant something like "the biggest source of sin is indeed self", and then committed a rare double-anticipation speech error, substituting "self" for both "source" and "sin".

"It is indeed to protect us from ourselves. And the biggest self of self is, indeed, self; that sin is, in fact, grounded in this notion of what is it that I want as opposed to somebody else?"

Based on the context, I'm guessing he meant:

"It is indeed to protect us from ourselves. And the biggest threat to self is, indeed, selfishness; that sin is, in fact, grounded in this notion of what is it that I want as opposed to somebody else?"

There's a lot of 'ourselves' and 'themselves' that precede the comment, which makes me think he might be trying to distinguish the concept of a single self, yourself, from the multitude. Oh, the enormity of the self.

But, not just me. We each are the most important person to our own self. He's just not saying it well. But, he's mostly right about the sentiment.

From this we see that the ego is formed in order to protect the self (the "I") from other selfs. Each self thinks itself the most important self, and so all the various selfs are in defensive and offensive competition to both establish an authentic identity that can't be broken by others, as well as dominate other people.

We want to protect our "self", our identity, while at the same time dominate other people "other selfs". But those other selfs see themselves as the main self, so they're, we're, all at the same game. Egos bouncing around, running into each other, causing chaos.

That is the essences of the sinful condition. We assert our self as indeed the most important, and cut off real and holistic community. We are exocentric beings, but because of our lack of secure identity we inflict our self upon others, rather than finding harmony with them.

The Christian response is that God is the only true self, who has his self in himself rather than any other form of validation. So, as we find our identity firmly established in God we can let go trying to establish our identity in destructive egotistic ways and find true harmony with God and with each other.

Of course, now that I wrote this I might not be any more clear than he is. I get what he's saying, and maybe need to clarify more.

It does sound like he's gotten some good pastoral advice on his core problem, which isn't the sex or adultery. That's the symptom. The core issue is his assertion of his own self over and against others, causing chaos all around. It's a matter of his identity, who he in his insecurity tries to assert himself as and who he could be if he were to let go of his ego and find his true self in tune with other selfs, chiefly God.

It sounds like he is confessing that he is a selfish jerk. He now realises that he cannot have a siren giving him the best sex he has ever known down in Argentina while he is Governing South Carolina and raising four sons in South Carolina and spending a little time with what's her name who runs his family for him. Life is tough when the mistress realises you have gone crazy, and she only sleeps with smart and powerful men.